PM566 Final Project

LA Galaxy U17 2022-2023 Season Game Data

Introduction

Catapult devices, equipped with GPS and inertial sensors like accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers, are wearable tracking technologies used in sports for performance monitoring. These devices provide detailed data by mapping athlete movements across three axes, making them a powerful tool for performance decisions. Used by the LA Galaxy Sports Performance Department, Catapult data has been integral in assessing performance readiness, rehabilitation, and training. As a USC Sports Science student and intern at LA Galaxy, I have been involved in collecting this data since January 2023 for the U17 2022-2023 season. While the data is usually visualized using Catapult’s Cloud or internal systems like Microsoft Azure, for this project, I’ve exported CSVs directly from Catapult for analysis. This study primarily focuses on evaluating how fatigue affects physical performance in soccer, specifically investigating variations in players’ maximum velocities between the first and second halves of games, and including an analysis of physical performance of the MLS Next Tournament where the team had to play five games in seven days.

Interactive Metric vs Player Load Plot

For some more initial visualization, I decided to look at the relationship between “Player Load”, which is defined by Catapult as “the sum of the accelerations across all axes of the internal tri-axial accelerometer during movement”, and a few other physical metrics. Specifically, I looked at scatterplot of Player Load vs Total Distance Covered, Total Number of Sprints, Explosive Efforts, and Total High Intensity Bouts. These interactive plots allow you to see which player each data point corresponds to and their exact values. As shown by these graphs, there is a strong positive correlation between Player Load and all examined physical metrics.

Maximum Velocity Analysis

A lot of my analysis was focused around looking at individual player’s high speeds. Here are some graphs showing highest velocities per player. The table shows how many times each player appeared in the Top 3 for highest speeds for each match.

Player Name	Half	Times in Top 3	Player Name	Half	Times in Top 3
Player_14	First Half	22	Player_14	Second Half	19
Player_17	First Half	17	Player_4	Second Half	14
Player_3	First Half	14	Player_12	Second Half	12
Player_4	First Half	11	Player_17	Second Half	12
Player_7	First Half	11	Player_7	Second Half	12
Player_19	First Half	9	Player_19	Second Half	11
Player_12	First Half	8	Player_21	Second Half	8
Player_15	First Half	7	Player_26	Second Half	7
Player_10	First Half	6	Player_3	Second Half	7
Player_20	First Half	6	Player_11	Second Half	6

Summary Table and Bar Charts for MLS Next Tournament Matches

The U17 Team Played 5 matches within 7 days in June 2023 in order to lift the MLS Next trophy. They played in hot and humid conditions in Texas. Here is a summary of their physical performance in these matches.

Activity Name	Game Date	Total Distance	Total High Intensity Bouts	Total Player Load	Total Explosive Efforts	Total Sprints	Total High Speed Distance	Total Very High Speed Distance	Total Sprinting Distance	Total Supra Velocity Distance
U17 GD vs NYCFC	2023-06-18	100962.69	468	9808.981	279	311	3741.93	691.55	244.39	35.18
U17 GD vs Philadelphia	2023-06-19	85746.10	438	8493.206	239	216	2843.61	651.58	216.41	60.81
U17 GD vs TFA	2023-06-21	91976.23	432	8732.986	255	269	3608.76	466.27	120.83	19.96
U17 GD vs San Jose	2023-06-23	108491.91	508	10766.929	283	304	3877.79	564.90	231.75	25.15
U17 GD vs Real Colorado	2023-06-25	99200.09	436	9329.604	236	230	2911.11	465.49	182.11	45.42

Interactive Sprint Distance and Physical Metrics Graphs

Here is an interactive graph showing the breakdown of distance covered at different speeds throughout the MLS Next Tournament, as well as match totals for physical metrics.